Why should you encourage your kids to enrol in coding courses?

Why should you encourage your kids to enrol in coding courses in itself is a million-dollar question. While AI and machine learning is getting more and more mainstream, in this blog let’s read how enrolling your kid in coding courses is the best gift that you can give him/her. If you think AI and Machine Learning is a fad, read ahead. With automation and Artificial intelligence, most of the repetitive jobs are going to be taken over by computers. Teaching your kids to learn to code is the only way to secure their future.

The era of digitalization is witnessing innovations like beacons, IoT, wearables, VR headsets, AR mobile phone apps, and so much more. These are years and years of research and experimentation that is changing the world as we know it. This has opened up new industries (mobile app development, e-commerce) and new jobs across these industries. As mathematics became relevant in schools only after the Industrial Revolution, it makes sense that stuff of science-fiction is now becoming relevant in the era of the Digital Revolution.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have captured the interests of scientists and science-fiction writers alike for years. AI showed up on the mainstream during one unforgettable chess match between a computer and a human champion.

Man vs Machine

The year is 1997 and world’s reigning chess champion, Garry Kasparov, is being watched by hundreds and thousands as he stays hunched over a chessboard, clearly frustrated. He’s anxious between turns and he can’t believe what he’s seeing—his opponent makes the final move and Kasparov loses to Deep Blue, a machine.

His competitor was Deep Blue, which was built by IBM, and was able to imagine 200 million positions every second. Kasparov was confident that he would win since he had beaten other chess-playing computers before.

Why was this defeat so symbolic? As Kasparov said, “From the beginning of the computer era, it was a belief that chess could serve as the ultimate test for machine intelligence, and the game of chess has always been seen as the nexus for human intelligence. So when a machine faced a human in chess and won this battle … It could definitely be a revolutionary moment.”

Artificial Intelligence: How Far Have We Come

While you may think you have no business with AI, you are wrong. When Netflix suggests you what television series you can watch next after binge-watching Suits, you are interacting with AI tech based on machine learning.

Siri, Bixby and Alexa are also AIs and they live in our smartphones helping us with Internet searches, our emails, our schedules, even our meal plans! Google Map uses machine learning to evaluate the speed at which traffic moves and helps you avoid road incidents like accidents and construction.

You book cabs in Uber or Ola, but have you wondered how they determine the wait time or price? These apps use machine learning to identify ETAs, prices and the best routes for the drivers. If I say an AI lives in your email, you might think I’m lying but have you wondered how exactly your spam filter works? Using algorithms of machine learning, several email services filter out a chuck of spam mails via message metadata and keywords.

When you use banking apps on your phone to deposit checks, your bank relies on technology created by Mitek that uses AI decode and transform handwriting on checks to texts. Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook all use AI through auto-suggesting emojis, facial filters, etc. Amazon and Walmart use AI to suggest products to you—there is AI automation everywhere.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said, “What we found out is that if we can get coding in the early grades and have a progression of difficulty over the tenure of somebody’s high school years, by the time you graduate kids..they’re already writing apps that could be put on the App Store.” Therefore, a strong base for coding and of algorithms from an early age can not only cognitive functions and logical thinking, it prepares people for the future.

In the digital age of today, children are swiping and clicking on smartphones before they can form coherent sentences. Tablets and smartphones are now digital companions and pacifiers. Parents now want their kids to learn more about the technologies they rely on. At WhiteHat Jr., we use pictures and stories to teach children codes, algorithms and commands.